Debrief: Strakka Racing prepared for FIA WEC return

Strakka Racing completed its final preparations for the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship with a successful weekend of running at the official Paul Ricard test.

The British team’s Strakka-Dome S103 LMP2 car made its long-awaited public debut at the two day Prologue, with regular drivers Danny Watts, Jonny Kane and Nick Leventis each gaining valuable track time.

Strakka Racing dedicated the opening day of the test to refining its race-day set up, having not entered a sportscar race since the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans. Leventis recorded the second fastest time of the opening session, just over a second behind the KCMG ORECA 05 of Nick Tandy.

Much of the afternoon was spent refining the car’s details, before all three drivers headed out for the night session. Assisted by the cooling track, Kane set Strakka’s best lap of the day, dipping into the 1m 49s bracket. 600 km of running on the opening day safely surpassed the team’s 50 lap requirement that would guarantee a third engine for 2015.

“It feels brilliant to be back after so long away and once again be part of this great championship,” said team principal Dan Walmsley. “The FIA WEC Prologue is perfect to check all our track-side processes, pit stop procedures and ensure we are up to speed with some of the regulation changes that have come into force since we last raced.”

Having achieved the main objective the team’s focus switched to developing a number of different set ups on the second day. Leventis’ 1m 48.192s lap in the Saturday morning session was the team’s quickest of the event, further confirming the competitive and consistent pace of the Strakka Dome S103.

“The car felt good through the test and it responded really well to the changes we made,”said Leventis. “The superb reliability ensured we progressed through the full programme we planned with an emphasis on the long run performance that we will need for racing. We now go to Silverstone with confidence and a real hunger to show our patient fans the wait has been worthwhile.”

Strakka Racing will make its return to international sportscar racing at the 6 Hours of Silverstone on April 12.